All Episodes

Some questions shouldn’t need asking twice, not after the encouragement we provide on this Pipedreams broadcast. It’s an aural array of amorous melodies designed to stir the heart and unlock the emotions. Our Valentine’s Day prelude features great tunes by Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, and Franz Liszt, dealing with first loves, impossible loves, deep loves, and love’s dreams. Featured organists are Bary Baker, Lew Williams, Simon Gledhill, and Lyn Larson. Happy or sad, impossible or inevitable, at daybreak or twilight, you’ll enjoy our melodious bouquet of Love’s Old Sweet Songs.

A multitalented California musician brings the organ up to date on our next Pipedreams broadcast. John West is composer, arranger, singer, and recitalist, working in and comfortable with both classical and popular styles, in church or in the theater. He demonstrates instruments in Glendora, Northridge, and Los Angeles, talks about his hopes for the future, and excites us with some great music of the past and some of his own new adventures.

Some of you might know him as a one-piece composer, but Johann Pachelbel, the pride of Nuremberg, wrote many other works beyond the ubiquitous Canon in D. On our next Pipedreams program, we’ll explore that extensive other repertoire, which includes splendid variation chains from which the young Bach learned a thing or two, elaborate chorale-preludes, modest miniatures for the vespers Magnificat, and splendid virtuoso showpieces that show off the sounds of 10 different instruments. Joseph Payne, Marilyn Mason, and Antoine Bouchard share excerpts from their complete CD cycles, too.

We sound the trumpet this week on Pipedreams as we visit Claremont United Church of Christ in California to celebrate an extraordinary artistic partnership. American organbuilder Manuel Rosales created the tonal design and finishing for this new organ, which was built by Casper Glatter-Goetz of Germany. The results are remarkable, as you’ll hear in inaugural season recital performance by Cherry Rhodes and Ladd Thomas, resident musician Carey Coker-Robertson, and Parisian soloist Daniel Roth. Plus Diane Meredith Belcher shows off the incredible Claremont trumpets in a piece written specially for them.

The pipe organ is not one thing but, rather, many - and our next Pipedreams broadcast explores some of that diversity while listening to instruments by six different builders, each one with a very distinct personality. A pair of organs in Ontario, for instance, make up in elegance and charm what they may lack in sheer size. Another one, in San Francisco, recycles 90-year-old pipes in a new configuration which both embraces history and creates its own. Yet another organ, built in Czechoslovakia, serves a Lutheran parish in Illinois and, when asked, can play itself. From California to South Carolina, it’s a North American Organ Sampler.

The organ places a brave foot forward into the new millennium, in solos and in the company of brass ensembles and symphonic bands, with sonic spectaculars and sweet soft sounds, too. This week Pipedreams celebrates the many characters of the king of instruments with a sampler of new instruments, recent repertoire and young players. Enjoy the demure delights of the organ at Pembroke College, Cambridge and the expansive voice of one of America’s largest instruments at the West Point Cadet Chapel. David Fedor teams up with the Ridgewood Concert Band in New Jersey, Paul Halley improvises at Spivey Hall, and Allison Leudecke and the Millennia Consort usher in a new century.

Pipedreams rings in a new century with a retrospective of the old, paying tribute to important anniversaries and personalities of the year gone by, and reflecting on the new millennium. You’ll hear the new organ at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, soloists Martin Jean and Jelani Eddington, and the pioneering recitalist, teacher, and organbuilder Robert Noehren. You’ll sample archive concert tapes, and new compact disc releases, too, as host Michael Barone leafs through the pages of An Organist’s Millennial Yearbook.

Think of them as sweets for the ears. We unwrap a bundle of seasonal cheer and a coast-to-coast collection of talent on the next Pipedreams broadcast. Organists play in solo and duo at Saint John’s Cathedral, Milwaukee, Spivey Hall in Morrow, Georgia, and the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, while choirs sing at Riverside Church, New York, Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, and All Saints Lutheran in Kansas City. In 13 different venues, our carols and fantasies all feature artists and instruments from around the United States. Wherever you are, we’ll all be right at home this week with An American Organist’s Christmas, hosted by Michael Barone.

The world is filled with joyful music at Christmas time, and nowhere is the music more exuberant than in the organ lofts of France. Beginning already in the 1600s, the tradition of holiday organ concerts grew to be so popular that in some places the French clergy outlawed them-their ‘dulci jubilo’ having swung a bit to far into the jubilo end of things. But why not? Even the angelic hosts would smile at the joyous works of Jean Guillou, Pierre Cochereau, Jean-Francois Dandrieu and the others, whose genius enlivens the vaults of Notre Dame Cathedral and other churches in Marseilles, Thiérache and Rouen and whose music brightens every corner during this remarkable season. Philippe Gueit, Andre Isoir, and Rene Oberson also play their part in this Pipedreams pageant.

Some of the tunes depict rustic shepherds. Some sing lullaby to a tiny baby, or celebrate the miracle that comes from heaven above. On the next Pipedreams broadcast we circle the globe in search of delightful musical ornaments for our holiday celebration and discover sweet sounding pipes and choirs that sing nearly as well as an angelic host. Whether it’s a French noel, a Benedictine monk’s special Christmas composition, some humorous variations on Good King Wenceslas, choristers in England and Sweden, or instruments from Spain and Switzerland, ours is a multicultural collection of seasonal sounds, and everyone is welcome. Host Michael Barone will be your guide.

with William Osborne, Susan Craig and friends, we discover some little known organ music by Ohio composers, plus other hidden treasures.

a quarterly review of recent organ recordings, drawing from the incredible variety of new and interesting materials which are available to music lovers these days.

passionate playing of powerful and poetic works by a composer famous for an almost daemonic virtuosity and his imaginative exploitation of the organ’s resources.

highlights from a convivial gathering of friends of the theatre organ in Cedar Rapids.

A visit with British organist David Briggs, who talks about his career and plays instruments in England and Minnesota.

reviewing recital performances of colorful new repertoire taped mostly in Atlanta during a national convention of theAmerican Guild of Organists.

intriguing highlights from imported recordings issued by the organ-focused German label Motette Verlag from Düsseldorf.

A tribute to the famous French organbuilder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll [1811—1899] whose vision created a new style of instrument and whose generosity encouraged artists who would maximize its potential.